Social Justice in an Open World: The Roie of the United Nations
5.4 The short life of the commitments made in Copenhagen The commitment just mentioned was never acted upon. Actually, all but one of the commitments made at the World Summit were rapidly forgotten by the most powerful Governments and international organizations, including the United Nations. The Forum was not in a position to provide a detailed analysis of the disappointing outcome of a conference that by all accounts had been a great success. Among the explanations that would need to be sorted out and weighed would be the difficulty of the subject, its comprehensiveness, and its lack of appeal for the media; the typical short life expectancy of international pronouncements; the failure to achieve, in the important follow-up stage, the conjunction of personalitiesthat made the Summit possible in spite of formidable obstacles; changes in the leadership of various Governments and institutions; and perhaps above all, the evolution of the ideological and political context. The Forum was able, however, to offer a number of observations. For some participants and perhaps even the organizers, the successful conclusion of the World Summit for Social Development was an end in itself, as evidenced by the weakness of the provisions for its follow-up. With previous United Nations conferences of this magnitude, the meeting and outcome texts had incorporated explicit provisions relating to the reinforcement or reorganization of the Secretariat to ensure that the necessary preparatory and follow-up work could be undertaken, but that was not the case in this instance. Commitment 9 of the Copenhagen Declaration includes vague references to supporting an increase in resources for operational activities and strengthening the capacity of the United Nations and the specialized agencies to fulfil their responsibilities in the implementation of the outcome of the Summit, but these provisions have had no effect whatsoever, at least in the United Nations. The relevant unit within the Secretariat was actually weaker after the Summit than before. There was a tacit prior understanding between the Secretariat and the Member States that this particular conference would have no implications for the regular budget of the Organization. On the intergovernmental side, difficult negotiations were required for interested countries to convince the major contributors that a special session of the General Assembly should be held five years later to review the implementation of the World Summit decisions and "consider further actions and initiatives" .30 At that special session, held in Geneva in June 2000, a report of the Secretariat providing a rather candid analysis of the lack of implementation of the major commitments and recommendations of the Summit was discussed and debated, and the General Assembly adopted a resolution with a comprehensive annex incorporating extensive commentary on each of the commitments made five years earlier. This document includes a political declaration in which the following is stated: "Social development requires not only economic activity but also reduction in the